Filmmaking is never easy. However, there are several different choices that can make the entire process even more complicated and difficult – and limiting yourself to just a single take during scenes is undeniably one of the most significant; Dungeons and Dragons is a good example of this.
Indeed, when it’s considered that the majority of Hollywood directors will usually want around five to ten takes for every single scene, there’s a lot that needs to be factored in. And, of course, this can also increase the risk of things going wrong very significantly.
Yet, despite all this, the one-take scene has become something of a trope in filmmaking, and interest in this production method is growing once again. The latest film to receive praise for this is the 2023 release of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which has no doubt pushed boundaries in much of its production.
A Challenging Project to Undertake
One-take scenes are a potentially valuable filmmaking tool, offering the ability to add a great deal of drama and excitement into a moment. However, they’re not easy to film successfully, and they can come with numerous complex challenges that must first be overcome.
Of course, one of the biggest issues with these scenes is that they require exceptional precision. Since the entire scene is filmed as one shot, a single mistake may require a complete restart – upping the production budget and increasing stress levels among the crew and actors significantly.
Of course, that leads to another major challenge: the actors’ own performances. The demands placed on acting teams to pull off a one-take scene are immense in their own right – and while a chase scene, as in this case, would usually have more limited speech, that doesn’t make the prospect much easier.
And, of course, there are the technical challenges and demands. Camera crews have a huge challenge on their own hands to try and capture the scene without breaking momentum or losing the action. Once again, this further adds pressure to the team, ensuring no one is left out when it comes to the challenge.
Praise from VFX Artists
Film effects can be incredibly difficult to get right, and with a one-take chase scene, this is even more complex. That’s not to say that it’s an impossible situation, though, and Dungeons and Dragons has managed to pull this off very impressively.
So much so, the film has gained attention from the team of VFX artists at Corridor Crew – who made it clear that this particular scene really made a powerful mark in comparison to the rest of the movie. Of course
Unfortunately, despite the production pushing the boat out in terms of its methods, things still didn’t go quite as well as was likely planned. The film made around sixty eight million at the box office on a budget of one hundred and fifty million; though a positive return and a good result overall, it’s likely that the developers may have been hoping for a slightly higher result from such an ambitious undertaking.
Nevertheless, with a film such as Dungeons and Dragons, which already had such an immensely complex story to cover (especially for audiences who may not know the background of the series themselves), this ambitious project is one that has no doubt garnered a great deal of support overall.
The thrilling one-take chase scene from Dungeons and Dragons is garnering praise, somewhat paralleling Ludacris’s explanation on why the Fast and Furious franchise hasn’t ended.
